Anger is running high at Westminster
Abbey, the principal 'royal peculiar' of the Anglican church, where the
prime minister's wife has been drawn into a row that overshadows relations
between the state and the clergy, Christopher Morgan reports Frank Field
did not mince his words when he confronted Wesley Carr, the dean, as the
early morning eucharist was ending at Westminster Abbey. "I feared you
were a bully," Field told him. "Now I know you are a bully." To Field's
astonishment, Carr did not even blink.

For Field, a high churchman
and minister for welfare reform, Carr's blank response was confirmation
that he was dealing with a man of stone. It was not as if Field was looking
for a quarrel. He had enough on his hands that day, Thursday, March 26,
without wanting a public spat with the man who effectively runs the church
where English sovereigns have been crowned for 1,000 years. Trollope,
the Victorian master of church-and-state drama, could not have created
a richer plot.

Its real-life cast includes
the prime minister, the prime minister's wife, an ambitious prelate, a
much-loved cathedral organist and a powerful but little-known Downing
Street official. What happens in the next few days could influence the
future of the Church of England.

For Field, March 26 was the
biggest day of his political career. At last, his ideas on the welfare
state were to be unveiled in a green paper. He was to present it to parliament
that afternoon, a rare honour for a non-cabinet minister, signifying his
privileged status in Tony Blair's eyes. But he could wait no longer to
tell Carr what he thought of him. For Carr, installed as Dean of Westsminster
only last summer - in time to be seen by a worldwide audience of hundreds
of millions presiding over the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales - had
suspended Martin Neary, the abbey's renowned organist and choirmaster.
Field was incensed.

The details of Neary's alleged
offence are obscure but concerned his financial management. Field, supported
by Neary's many other admirers, believes the affair should have been resolved
without his being humiliated and barred from his duties. But Carr, one
year Field's senior at 56, shows no sign of budging. As dean he is, in
effect, the abbey's chief executive, responsible for running the Anglican
communion's most historic shrine. Its links with the monarchy - it is
legally defined as a "royal peculiar" - make him a royal cleric. When
the Queen and other royals come to state services, he greets them and
says goodbye. Known before he came to Westminster as a determined man
intent on getting his way with the minimum of debate, in disciplinary
matters he holds all the cards. Or does he?

Field and others are determined
to challenge him. Cherie Booth QC, the prime minister's wife, is Neary's
counsel. There are murmurs about raised eyebrows at Buckingham Palace.
To complicate matters further, the row coincides with a move by the Church
of England to increase the power of deans in the running of cathedrals.
This needs parliamentary approval, which may well be less easily forthcoming
in the light of the abbey row. It also overlaps with reports that Blair,
a regular attender at Anglican and Roman Catholic services, is unhappy
with the advice he receives about the appointment of bishops in the established
church, which ultimately rests with him.

NEARY, an unlikely character
to find at the centre of a rerun of Trollope's Barchester Towers, has
been the abbey's organist for the past 10 years. The Queen decorated him
for his role in Diana's funeral. Now Abbey staff are discouraged from
speaking to him or his wife. The parents of his choirboys cannot understand
how such a distinguished figure could be treated this way. He has received
more than 200 letters of support. A circuit judge whose son is in the
choir has called for an independent tribunal. Another anguished father
wrote to The Times saying that parents were "inspired by his work no less
than the boys whose trust he so skilfully earns. But now he and his wife
have been publicly humiliated because of the dispute".

Neary heard a fortnight ago
that he had been suspended from duty while internal inquiries were made.
The official line is that "the dean and chapter are in dispute with Dr
and Mrs Neary regarding matters of administration of the abbey's music
department". The dean and canons have gone to great lengths to avoid comment;
but the allegations are thought to concern a choir trip to Oslo and expenses
involved. An insider claims the disputed sums are tiny. "Neary is as straight
as a die. He wouldn't take a penny from anyone," he said. Neary and his
wife act as agents for the abbey choir and concert fees are channelled
through a business bank account separate from abbey funds. Carr is said
to be incensed that the abbey did not profit from certain overseas tours.

The abbey is not short of funds,
but Carr is a formidable fundraiser. Since coming to the abbey, he has
imposed a £5 entrance charge for non-worshippers. His role in the
row was perhaps more predictable than the organist's. He attracted controversy
when he was a residentiary canon at Chelmsford Cathedral in the 1980s.
Church insiders say Carr was "almost permanently at loggerheads" with
John Moses, its provost and now Dean of St Paul's Cathedral. Then, during
10 years as Dean of Bristol Cathedral, Carr established a reputation for
"doing things in his own way" and was regarded as abrasive and "not good
with people". He was the driving force behind the Bristol chapter's decision
to suspend its organist, Malcolm Archer, in 1989. Archer, a distinguished
composer and choir director, was eventually asked to resign and now runs
the choir at Wells Cathedral. One former member of the Bristol chapter
said: "There was no discussion. We just did as we were told."

Carr's appointment last year
as Dean of Westminster was consequently received by some members of the
abbey chapter with incredulity and dismay. Diana's funeral was Carr's
first state event at Westminster Abbey. Hackles were raised by his invitation
to Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, to give a eulogy that turned out to
be critical of the royal family. "Who would have invited a multiple adulterer
into his pulpit for such an occasion?" asked a member of the General Synod,
the church's "parliament". In the ideological disputes of the church,
Carr is labelled a "zealous liberal" by his critics, who cite his comments
on women's ordination as evidence of his dictatorial instincts. A sensitive
issue for many, he considers it settled and no longer worth debating.
"I believe the Church of England is bending over backwards far too far
for those who are against the ordination of women," he said in a debate.

Curbing Carr's powers cannot
come too soon for the abbey's unpaid volunteers, an elderly group who
oversee the abbey's flood of tourists. Carr told the over-seventies among
them last week that their services were no longer required. In doing so
he caused the maximum possible offence, barely mitigated when he allowed
a reprieve for under-75-year-olds after being reminded that the Queen,
as head of the abbey and supreme governor of the church, is nearly 72.
Carr is not entirely isolated, however.

Donald Gray, who is the Speaker's
chaplain in the House of Commons and an abbey canon, said last week that
press reports of the Neary case were based on a misunderstanding. "It
is massively inaccurate to pick off the dean," he said. "We are all together
in this."

Michael Turnbull, Bishop of
Durham, also believes Carr deserves his place in the church elite. Cathedral
deans, he said yesterday, were "one of the nation's greatest assets -
men of the highest calibre". NEVERTHELESS, Carr's determination to stamp
his authority on the "royal peculiar" could misfire spectacularly, because
in suspending Neary he has taken on man with sympathisers in extraordinarily
high places. Soon after the notice of suspension was issued, Neary and
Field approached the prime minister's wife in her legal chambers and she
agreed to act as his counsel. She is, of course, a QC and one of the country's
leading employment lawyers. When Neary awaited a summons to appear before
the abbey's dean and chapter without knowing the detailed charges against
him, she told him she would apply to a judge in chambers for an injunction
preventing the proceedings. "Carr's court" was scheduled for March 26,
the day of the green paper. The threat of an injunction forced him to
back down and rearrange the hearing, which could come within days.

Although she is acting in her
role as a lawyer, the involvement of the prime minister's wife gives the
imbroglio a larger political dimension. Tony Blair not only knows what
his wife is doing but for the past 11 months has taken an increasingly
hands-on approach to appointments within the Church of England. Since
entering Downing Street, he has become the first prime minister in modern
times to take a passionate interest in his ecclesiastical responsibilities.

Little used to be known about
how the Church of England decided its senior appointments of archbishops,
bishops and most cathedral deans, other than that the Queen appointed
them on the prime minister's advice - and that he acted on the advice
of the Crown Appointments Commission. Last September, however, The Sunday
Times revealed that Blair had rejected the commission's shortlist of two
for the bishopric of Liverpool. The curtain was suddenly lifted and further
revelations may follow. Blair is known to be alarmed at the low calibre
of many senior clergy and attributes the church's present difficulties
and low attendances to this.

He is believed to have rejected
both Liverpool candidates because they were "Carey clones" - men cast
in the grey image of George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury. Carey himself
has been left in no doubt about Blair's view that the church should rethink
the way it finds new bishops and end the practice of selecting "bland
committee men". Carey's response, however, was to call in members of the
Crown Appointments Commission for individual grillings about the Liverpool
fiasco. Blair was also dissatisfied with the appointment of the new Bishop
of Southwark; the mitre has gone to Tom Butler, Bishop of Leicester and
a Carey favourite. Blair wanted Rowan Williams, Bishop of Monmouth and
an outstanding theologian.

As long as Carey remains at
Lambeth Palace, tension over senior church appointments is certain. Blair
sees little evidence of a willingness to change, and the row over Carr's
maladroit management at the abbey is making matters worse. Blair's circle
believe Carr's unsuitability to hold such a high-profile position should
have been obvious. Blair also knows that rows like the one at the abbey
are far from rare. A bitter feud lasted nearly 10 years at St George's
Chapel, Windsor, until Lord Hailsham personally intervened when he was
lord chancellor. And St Paul's Cathedral is split over its first woman
priest, Lucy Winkett. John Halliburton, the chancellor of the cathedral,
stays away when she celebrates holy communion. A minor canon left and
many London priests regard St Paul's as a "no-go" area because of women's
ordination.

Attendances are now so low
in the Church of England that full statistics will not be published this
year. If the church hierarchy is not aware of the crisis of confidence
in its leadership, Blair is. He wants to see men of vi sion running the
church. His zeal has led him to doubt the advice of John Holroyd, his
appointments secretary and linkman on church promotions. A career civil
servant, Holroyd is responsible for the undercover work on crown appointments
to cathedral chapters. His hand was seen in the Liverpool nominations,
Carr's arrival at Westminster and other controversial appointments. Catapulted
into the limelight, he is now said to be deeply uncomfortable in his post.

Those close to Blair believe
the prime minister wants a new appointments secretary to look beyond the
Church of England's existing hierarchy. One prominent church figure said:
"The central problem is that second and third division men are recommending
fourth and fifth division people and mediocrity is being perpetuated."
When Donald Gray retires later this year,there will be a significant vacancy
at Westminster. Blair intends to be hands-on from the start in the choice
of the canon's successor. The tortuous dispute of senior clerics at Lincoln
Cathedral exposed the vanity of those who are over-promoted. If peace
is not quickly restored to Westminster Abbey, it may take an appeal to
the Queen herself to achieve it.